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GRANVILLE - Whether it’s clocks, decorative tables or guitars, Addison Conway has a talent for crafting objects with his hands.

A crucial element in honing his skills has been Addison’s participation in the Granville High School Industrial Technology program for the past three years.

In his freshman year, Addison took Industrial Technology as an elective. Now wrapping up his junior year, he was, he said, “trying to figure out what my niche was. I always thought wood-working would be something I’d be interested to get into.”

A talent for using wood for commercial and craft-making runs in the family: Addison’s father, Adam, works in the lumber industry.

Mother Lori said that because of his father’s trade, Addison’s “always grown up walking tracks of timber. I think he’s got that in his blood.”

During his freshman year of “introduction to woodshop,” then under the instruction of John Bennett, Addison made wooden coat hangers and a pendulum clock that still hangs in the family dining room.

In his sophomore year, he continued in the high school’s tech program, this time studying industrial technology. The class got him used to using tools. During his coursework that year, he made a stepping stool that now resides in his mother’s closest.

During the second half of that same school year, he crafted a table composed of wood and metal. “I found a design for an all-wood table,” he said, but then decided to change the base to be made out of metal, using one-edge tube that required 80 different welds. He fitted it with a top composed of “wormy maple wood.”

That project now sits in his bedroom.

For his junior year, Addison completed two major projects involving woodcraft.

During the first semester, working with another student, he helped to repair and enhance more than a dozen benches inside the high school.

The project required stripping off former surfaces and installing new plywood. Addison’s uncle then used a laser engraver to enhance each bench with the school’s trademark “Ace.”

Combining his passion for wood-working and playing the guitar, Addison also recently completed construction of his own Stratocaster.

“It was based off a normal Stratocaster we got at Guitar Guys in Heath,” he explained. He used the store-bought version as a rough template for his own handcrafted guitar.

“I took it into shop and said, ‘Here’s a guitar, I want to build one,’” he said. He set out with a vision that evolved over the process of constructing his cherry and mahogany Stratocaster's body.

Rodney Fields, Technology Education Instructor at Granville High School, said he'd never built a guitar before, "But when he came to me and said he wanted to do this, I was confident enough in my abilities and in Addison's skills that I knew we could pull it off."

“It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in shop,” he said. When the components at last came together in a proper fit following some adjustments, “it was probably my proudest moment.”

A barn on the family’s property includes a workshop where Addison can focus on projects outside class and that’s where he completed his guitar. In a loft space above the workshop, there is an elevated stage with a drum stand where he can practice on his new instrument.

He also works on other projects at home: He’s been making boot jacks and other items that will be donated to help with fundraising for this June’s edition of Velvetonia.

A gifted athlete who has played golf and basketball at GHS, Addison’s first year of playing tennis this year resulted in a broken thumb that required some shop help from his instructor. Fields said, "If it was an operation he could do one-handed, he did it, but if it was detail work and took two hands or a lot of stability, I'd jump in."

Fully recovered, Addison now looks forward to his senior year in Industrial Tech. He’s currently working out what he might tackle for his coming school year’s projects.

Looking further down the road and toward a possible career of crafting things with his hands, Addison said, “I can definitely see doing this. I enjoy it and it’s been a great program. It makes you realize how much work can go into even a small piece. I’ve also got to meet some guys I probably wouldn’t have met.”

Of the Granville tech program, Lori Conway said that for her son time spent in class, “is a highlight of his day. It’s a shame so many schools have lost programs like this one. He’s learned dedication in there.”

Fields said, "He's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of kid. He's a dream for any educator, but especially one who teaches what I teach."